From the Editors
IN TIMES GONE BY, periods of austerity ended – at least for bookkeepers – with the lid being screwed down on the red ink, and a nice fresh bottle of black or blue ink opened. Late summer 2022 feels a little that way. We’re not yet out of the COVID woods, but somehow it seems like the tide’s turned for better times, and we’re feeling good about it.
This issue, join Jacinta Bowler on a dive underground to visit the ‘genius lair’ – aka the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL): a dark-matter detector in a disused goldmine beneath a town in country Victoria.
With guidance from a well-humoured band of biologists, Jamie Seidel takes a look at the animal species thought to enjoy a laugh. There’s a funny side to being a lab rat? From mirthful mammals to the (barely) visible, Mark Pesce delves into the world of trying to see tiny things, and an accidental discovery in a Melbourne Uni lab that’s led to an innovative startup.
And to the wildly, wonderfully theoretical: Lauren Fuge explains the anything-but-conventional ideas of physicist Joan Vaccaro, which last year drove the most fascinating experiment imaginable (there are timelords – really).
As always, there’s much more besides. Amanda Yeo explains how to build a holographic concert performance (both easier, and harder, than it seems); Richard A. Lovett takes aim at rogue asteroids with NASA’S DART initiative; Manuela Callari considers better and more environmental ways of disposing of human remains; and J.P. O’malley reveals the remarkable, years-long experimental competition designed to settle on a theory of human consciousness once and for all. We’ve also been spending the last few months answering life’s big questions from readers around Australia, a few of which we’ve featured in this issue.
There’s such joy in the fidget-wheel detail of science’s quest to learn – like a puzzle game in real life, scientists are explorers, adventurers and detectives all at once, and through their work the sum of knowledge grows. If that doesn’t make you feel good, who knows what will? GAIL MACCALLUM Editor IAN CONNELLAN Digital Editor contribute@cosmosmagazine.com